The Halflings cannot be stopped

My progress on the halflings has rolled on inexorably. Or maybe it's that I've made progress on halflings who roll on inexorably. In terms of actual time spent on some of these guys, how can something so short take so long? It's a riddle indeed.

I find the Duncan Shadow halflings quite straightforward to paint, and I like that their snappy uniforms are so crisply defined. It basically forces me to paint the puff and slash in separate colours, which is why I elected to put them alongside the MOM greatswords, who are much the same. Of course, finding them straightforward and them taking little time seem to be two unrelated things for me. And I still find that I struggle with some of their faces, particularly the female ones. Painting faces is often one of the most rewarding parts of the model, because it is sometimes really clear where the highlights should go, and it draws the model together. I didn't always find that here, and it's discouraging. But they'll be perfectly usable as a regiment on the tabletop. Looking at them individually (or with a camera) is always a little less forgiving.

20 Duncan Shadow halfling archers, up to my usual sort of tabletop standard. I had already shared 10 of these. The other 10 were done in a reverse colour scheme to try to break up the fact that there's only 6 different models there.

Man this phone camera's focal point is tricksy. Anyway, you can see the rather rough detail on some of the female faces there in the second row. The unit has no command models. If I want a command group to match these guys, I'm probably going to have to convert something. Duncan Shadow has been going through making multi-pose versions of a lot of stuff, so if he gets to these guys it will make my life a bit easier (and give me more variety to further expand the unit).

Puff and slash, slash and puff. Honestly I really do like the little peeps of the underlying colour. I've never bothered picking these details out on a unit before. It certainly doesn't speed up the painting process, but maybe it's worth it? Question of priorities, and depends how clear the layer inside the slashes is on the models, I think.

So the halflings are basically the first usable regiment I've put together for my Talabecland contingent, but I've continued to allow myself to be distracted along the way with other details. I present to you my Talabecland steam tank!

This is an older model Norba steam tank with a One Gold Piece halfling hanging out the top, throwing up the horns with both hands. So metal. I'm pretty sure it's meant to be a halfling Jack Black, given he arrived in a little trio of models labeled "Pugnacious D"...

The halfling was actually a misprint. The provided supports failed, resulting in him printing without legs. Bit of a disaster, until I thought of another use for him. I have successfully printed a version with legs using my own supports now, but I feel like it was a happy accident for this guy, who is clearly moving up in the world. 

As usual, my painting of the tank itself was pretty simple. It's a similar approach to how I painted my first steam tank, probably close to 10 years ago. Consistency!

Not gonna lie - I had no idea what colour I should use on which bits of metal. What's steel, what's brass? Dunno. Choose at random. I'm sure that's how the college of engineers does it.

It's good to have another steam tank up my sleeve. One of those things that I probably have disproportionately few of, given the size of my Empire army. Now I just need more Talabecland troops to justify it being in that contingent.

The halfling has been caught "testing" his new war engine on various undeserving victims. Realistically I'm not sure he can be fully blamed. He's clearly not steering. He probably has no idea how the thing works. It's not like it really belongs to him...

The halflings have taken me a while to get through, and I feel like I need a break from painting models like that. What better way to take a break than to jump into painting the largest model I've ever tried to paint...?

An Empire landship, in all its depressingly large (from a painting perspective) glory. This is a print from Magori Miniatures. I was never able to palate the cost of the old Forgeworld model. I had just accepted that I would never have one. Then along come 3D printers and affordable files and... the world has changed. Painting it might still kill me, though.

I haven't yet decided what contingent to paint the landship for. Theoretically it should probably be in either Nuln or Marienburg colours, given it was built by one to be delivered to the other. I don't currently have models painted in either of those colours, so the jury is still out. Maybe the Talabecland halflings stole it. Actually, it probably will end up being stolen, but maybe not by halflings...

Anyway, painting the landship has been on the cards for months, and this is now the month where I'm committing to get it done. If you never hear from me again, you know what killed me. Or maybe it will be that I'm still here, but unable to take proper photos to post because of my hobby helper here...

This is Gracie, and she is adamant that my light box is not in fact for taking photos of models. They are for cats to sit in. Nor are painting tables good for much else beyond being sat on by cats. She's even decided my painting water is mainly there for her to drink. She has been with us for years, but I swear she's getting less helpful over time. The light box lives on a high shelf out of reach, but as soon as I got it down with the intention of using it, she appeared in the place where I wanted to put it. The struggle is real...

(actual footage of Gracie's reaction every time I decide to do something hobby-related)